In New York City, a loosely organized national group called "Amateur Radio Emergency Service" (ARES) was activated within five minutes of American Flight 11 crashing into the north tower, the first attack. Private, non-government radio operators, called "Hams" or "Amateur Radio Operators" worked in shifts for two weeks.
In 2005's Hurricane Katrina, radio operators were functioning three days
before landfall. At the request of the American Red Cross, radio operators then supplemented communications at 200 shelters. Seven-hundred private radio operators were working by Sept. 6.
A perusal of modest collateral produced by another associated bunch, the
National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL) comes up with more:
Hurricane Hugo, 1989;
All conventional communication was destroyed; amateur radio networks coordinated relief shipments and medical supplies; hot-shot teams called "jump-teams" visited affected areas.
It goes on.
"At some point, our standard means of communications -- cellphone, landline and Internet -- will likely fail. When events like this happen, volunteer Ham operators give of themselves to save lives and property," Bryce Anderson, a member of the Los Angeles-based Topanga Disaster Radio Team (DRT), told TechNewsWorld.